Primary:Illinois has a mixed-hybrid primary system. Voters can change parties each year but must declare a party affiliation at the polls. Depending on which party is chosen, the voter will then be counted as registered for that party. Voters may change party affiliation at polls or caucus.

Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by February 21. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 9. A "grace period" was also available, allowing voter registration until three days before an election.[2][3]

Race background

Endorsements

Fred Smith had been endorsed in the Democratic primary over incumbent Bobby L. Rush.[10]Rush had been criticized by govtrack.us for having the "fourth worst missed-vote record in Congress — 13.2 percent."[10] He had also taken critique from suburban mayors who "grumble that he's less responsive to their constituents' needs than to those of city residents."[10] The redrawn 1st District, reaching into rural Will County, brought in many more suburban voters.[10]

On the Republican ticket, Donald Peloquin had been endorsed over Frederick Collins and Jimmy Lee Tillman II.[10]Peloquin was known for his "2004 attempt to get dozens of southland communities to secede and form "Lincoln County."[10] The Chicago Tribune noted that Peloquin was a strong advocate for a third regional airport and would work for federal funding for infrastructure projects,[10]citing one instance when St. Francis Hospital announced it was closing, when he helped build the coalition that created MetroSouth Medical Center.[10]

Impact of redistricting

With the 2011 redistricting, Illinois lost 1 of its current 19 House seats because the state's population failed to grow as fast as in other states.[11]Illinois has had 11 Republican congressmen and 8 Democrats since the November 2010 election.[11] The new map, designed by the dominant Democrats, could have flipped that advantage to as many as 12 Democrats and only 6 Republicans.[11]

The new 1st District was composed of the following percentages of voters of the old congressional districts.[12][13]

District partisanship

FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study

In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. Illinois' 1st District became less Democratic because of redistricting.[14]